More on Times Online's new look

I wrote last night that I don't like Times Online's new look introduced this week. The display is too brassy and bold, too in-your-face, more like a giant billboard. The headlines and pictures hit you squarely in the eyes, there is little unused white space to give your eyes a rest. Gone are the elegant old black nameplate, generous white space and restrained display that gave the website a touch of class. Times Online was one of the best looking websites in my view. But I am an old fogey. Any product has to appeal to a younger market.

I may not like the new look, but this is the boldest redesign I have seen online. Times Online has been completely tranformed, no other new site has been through a makeover as radical as this. The black and lime green nameplate -- which I don't like -- the blue headlines, the sans serif typeface, the new navigation tabs below the nameplate, and the pictures and text running across the whole page with hardly any margin left give the website a busy, colourful look. Maybe this is what you need to attract the MySpace Generation.

We old fogeys will still browse The Times and get used to the new look. But our days are numbered. No publication can survive without younger readers.